Braves place Mike Soroka on the DL with shoulder inflammation, recall Danny Santana

Why can’t we just have nice things?

When Mike Soroka was called up from the minors, many fans (including yours truly) were excited that the next wave of talent was on its way up from the minors. Soroka was/is a highly regarded pitching prospect and seemed to validate that excitement with a lights out performance against the Mets in his debut.

However, in the middle of May after a couple of uncharacteristic performances, the Braves placed Soroka on the disabled list with a sore throwing shoulder. While manager Brian Snitker seemed to indicate that the injury was something that the young pitcher could have potentially pitched through, the Braves took the cautious route and let him rest until the beginning of June. After a strong return to the rotation, Soroka struggled a bit in his last start against Toronto. It appears we may know at least part of the reason for those struggles.

It is fairly clear now that there is something more than just the usual soreness up with Soroka’s shoulder. As of this moment, there is no more information beyond the Braves’ statement available, but it seems very likely that there are a lot of medical exams in Mike’s near future as they try to figure out the root cause of his issues. The timing isn’t great for the Braves as they have already had to place Mike Foltynewicz on the DL, but there does appear to be a replacement in-house for him at least in the short term as we can likely expect Brandon McCarthy to continue his work on the mound now.

In some corresponding moves, Danny Santana has been called up from Triple-A Gwinnett. Santana still hates drawing walks and has slashed .279/.300/.539 with 11 home runs in 54 games in the minors this season.

Reliever Jose Ramirez, who has dealt with setbacks on his own road to recovery, was placed on 60-day DL to make room for Santana on the roster.